


Symbols

by AchillesMonkey



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Family, Gen, Tattoos, set at the end of season two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 18:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11926227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AchillesMonkey/pseuds/AchillesMonkey
Summary: Skye decides to get a tattoo.





	Symbols

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [5 Times Pipsy surprised each other](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11907195) by [stjarna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stjarna/pseuds/stjarna). 



> This was inspired by chapter 3 of the fic above. I've never gotten a tattoo before, so apologies if anything's incorrect.

_ Knock. Knock. Knock. _ Skye shifted from foot to foot, fidgeting with the pen and pad of green sticky notes that she’d swiped from Jemma’s desk in the lab. The door opened and May stared at her with her usual guarded expression. It used to really bother Skye that she couldn’t read what May was feeling. Growing up the way Skye had made reading others an essential safety skill. Now Skye knew what May had been through, why she was always so guarded, and her non-expressions didn’t bother her anymore.

“Hi,” Skye said, smiling at her mentor. The smile faded when she noticed the suitcases on the bed behind her. “Sorry, I just wanted to see if you’d write something in Chinese for me.” She held out the pen and the pad of sticky notes, which May took from her.

“What do you want me to write?”

“Family.”

May clicked the pen and turned away slightly as she began to make strokes on the top sticky note.

“I want to get a tattoo,” Skye explained, even though May hadn’t asked. “Maybe on my ankle, or behind my ear. I haven’t decided yet.”

May handed back the pen and sticky notes. “You should get it behind your ear,” she said as Skye studied the two symbols May had written. “If you end up losing a foot, you’d have to get it done again. If you lose your head—well, you’d be dead, so it wouldn’t matter.”

Skye blinked at her, her mind immediately bringing up an image of Coulson and his sling. “Right,” she said. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks, May. I’ll—uh—let you get back to your packing.”

~*~*~*~

Skye took one last look at her dad’s new veterinary clinic as she started Lola. “I have one stop I want to make before we head back,” she told Coulson.

“Okay,” Coulson agreed. “Where?”

Fifteen minutes later he had his answer. He looked at the tattoo shop’s sign with slightly raised eyebrows. “You’re getting a tattoo?”

“Yeah,” Skye said as they got out of the car. “It’s small, so it shouldn’t take long. You can wait here if you want.”

“No, I’ll come in,” Coulson said. “Unless you don’t want me to.”

“You can.”

“I’ve thought about getting a tattoo before,” Coulson commented as they entered. “I’ve just never been brave enough to go through with it. Needles, ugh!”

“Cap’s shield on your back?” Skye teased. Coulson busied himself with looking at the pictures on the wall and didn’t respond.

“Hi there, what can I do for you?” a tattoo-covered man asked, appearing from the back of the shop.

“Hi,” Skye said, pulling the sticky note out of her pocket. “I want to get these symbols tattooed behind my left ear.”

The man looked at the design and nodded. “Okay, I can do that. Come on back.”

Skye had read mixed reports of whether or not getting the tattoo in that location would hurt, so she was pleased when it didn’t bother her at all. She’d always had a high pain tolerance, and it had only gotten higher after going through terrigenesis. She had Coulson come back to look at it before the tattoo artist put the bandage on.

“Family,” he read, smiling at Skye. “Very nice.”

“You know Chinese?” Skye asked.

Coulson shrugged. “I’ve picked up a few words from May.”

“So, do you want me to hold your hand while you get Cap’s shield?”

“Pass.”

Skye brushed her fingers gently over the bandage as she drove back to the Playground. Family had meant a lot of things to her over the years. As a child, it was something she didn’t have, something she was searching for. Now, she’d found her family, and it was nothing like she’d ever thought it would be.

~*~*~*~

A few weeks later, she went back to the tattoo parlor, and got a small daisy behind her right ear.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, and for any kudos/comments! Feel free to check out my [Tumblr](http://unlessimwrongwhichyouknowimnot.tumblr.com)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [the longest way round (is the shortest way home)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13817553) by [Fierysky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fierysky/pseuds/Fierysky)




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